Tuesday, March 31, 2015

I once owned a Fairey Fulmar, and I kept her on a mooring at
Hullbridge. She remained afloat at all times, which was a bit unusual for that
part of the River Crouch. There were two reasons for being able to remain afloat:
her shallow draught when her keel was raised, and because the mooring was located
in an ever present pool at low water.

Laying the mooring was a bit of hoot, because my meticulous
plan didn’t quite work out as I hoped. The story goes as follows:

I had a child’s wooden wheelbarrow that I filled with
concrete into which I inserted a loop of iron rod before it set - So far so
good. The result was a nice mooring block conveniently placed in the
wheelbarrow for transporting it to where I may want.

At low water I went to the spot of the proposed mooring, and
I tried digging a hole in the mud which was about two feet under the surface of
the water, but it proved to be very difficult. Eventually I was satisfied the hole
was big enough, and at each of the four corners I inserted long canes as
markers. Before the tide came, in I wheeled the barrow and its
contents to the middle of the river, adjacent to the Up River Yacht Club’s
slipway and buoyed it.

As planned, I found myself standing on the bow of my Fairey
Fulmar an hour before high water hauling the rope which was tied to the mooring block. Because
of the combined weight of me and the block, the prop almost came out of the water!
To make matters worse, I could not at first remove the block from the wheelbarrow,
because it was buoyant. To reduce the weight at the bow I kept the block
submerged. Meanwhile the yacht was drifting out of control. By forcefully
prodding the barrow with the boathook I was able to free it. I returned to
the cockpit to gain control and to bring the yacht back to her designed waterline for
the prop to have enough drive for making headway.

Approaching the wiggling canes, and about fifty yards away from them,
I set an anchor from the stern so as to position the bow by the markers. By the time this was accomplished it was almost high water at the stand of tide with just enough current
to keep the yacht by the markers. I cut the engine and went forward. Apprehensively I lowered the block between the four canes. A later inspection showed that the hole was not quite large enough for the block, but there was
still enough depth at low water to keep my Fairey Fulmar clear.

She turned out to be a fine yacht for East Coast cruising,
on account of her lifting keel, but care had to be taken when traversing
swatchways because of her 5’ 9” draught when the keel was fully down. Winding
it up and down took ages. At 20’ LOA and
with a beam of 7’ 9” and headroom of 5’ 5” she was a comfortable two berth
cruiser. Despite her top-hamper, her performance to windward was exceptionally
good. Her one big drawback was her inability to hold a course. Having to always
steer by hand was a nightmare. The inboard engine situated under the cockpit
floor was easy to get at.

Saturday, March 28, 2015

Is this a fin keel Caprice Mk V? She looks about the same
size, but her cabin top is more streamlined and her transom and associated
coaming appear to have been modified. Whatever she is, she looks pretty able.

Monday, March 23, 2015

Yesterday in the comments section, Alden Smith mentioned
there was a similarity in appearance between Julian Mustoe’s ‘Harrier’ and
Commander Bill King’s ‘Galway Blazer 11’. I met Julian when he was preparing
‘Harrier’ for his great adventure, and I remember him saying he had
deliberately designed her to have similar characteristics, for strength, for reduction of wave impact, for water shedding qualities and increased buoyancy. The
drawbacks of the cigar shape were more windage and the unfriendly, hazardous deck,
as with ‘Galway Blazer 11’. However, ninety-nine percent of the time both yachts were
handled from the security of the cabin.

After returning home in 1973 from sailing ‘Galway Blazer 11’ around the world, Commander Bill King put her up for sale. I met him at the West
Mersea Yacht Club when he gave an illustrated lecture about his voyage, and he
said he had enough sailing to last him a lifetime. I remember seeing his yacht
at the London Boat Show where she was the star attraction. Peter Crowther bought
her in 1974 for £10,000 and he entered her in the two-handed Round Britain Race that year. He invited
me and my brother to have a look at her when she was at Plymouth before the start of the race.* Peter renamed the yacht, 'Galway Blazer of Dart' and he owned the Angus
Primrose designed schooner for many years before she was lost in the 1996 Single-handed
Transatlantic Race and he has written a book** about his experiences sailing
her.

Sunday, March 22, 2015

It was with great delight that I recently came across a
reference to Julian Mustoe. He is the intrepid sailor who set out in his
modified Folksong ‘Harrier’ to sail around the world in the wake of HMS Beagle,
aboard which Charles Darwin, the naturalist, developed his extraordinary theory
of evolution.

Julian’s voyage was of particular interest to me, because ‘Harrier’,
formerly ‘Zeta’, in her original glory, was built by me from a basic bonded
deck and hull to the design of Eric Berquist. Julian stripped her out
completely, only wanting her for her hull and junk rig. She was well ballasted
with a ton of lead and her hull had no seacocks. He built a new raised deck to
provide increased headroom and for greater internal volume.

To cut a very long story short, Julian succeeded in
following the wake of HMS Beagle, but not without suffering the loss of ‘Harrier’
when she was wrecked on the Brazilian coast. He subsequently fitted out another
vessel that he named, ‘Harrier of Down’, and he continued his great adventure,
finally returning home after eleven years, not all of them at sea, on account
of spending time ashore in pursuit of his interests and adding to his income.

An enthusiastic supporter of Darwinian Theory Julian wanted
to see things for himself and to present in a book his own observations in light
of Darwin’s voyage and discoveries. Here’s what he says about the book, which
has yet to be published, ‘for the person who seeks
pleasure and enlightenment from a truthful and informative book, and who can
respond to the lure of past times, the interest of a modern journey and to the
prospect of distant horizons.’

I congratulate Julian on his achievement and wish him every
success in his new endeavour in 2015 to sail ‘Harrier of Down’ to the Baltic
Sea for carrying out another historically based cruise exploring the territory and
activities of the Hanseatic League.

Saturday, March 21, 2015

Yesterday, along with millions of TV viewers, I had the
privilege of watching the eclipse of the sun. Cloud cover where I live in Essex
prevented me from seeing it firsthand. I
thought the BBC produced and presented their programme very well. With great
technical skill they showed live footage of the eclipse from different parts of
the UK and from the Faroe Islands.

The moon’s shadow first passed over S W England at Newlyn. From there it progressed in a northerly
direction over England and Scotland. Perhaps the trickiest part of filming was
from an aircraft in flight north of the Faroes from where it was possible to film
a full eclipse. Liz Bonnin was the commentator. Elsewhere in the UK the eclipse was only
partial. The further north you were, the fuller was the eclipse.

The 20th March 2015 also coincided with the Spring
Equinox, the first day of the year when there are twelve hours of daylight and
twelve hours of darkness for those at the equator. Coincidentally, the Moon
happens to be in perigee; that’s when it is closest to the earth while
travelling on its elliptical orbit. Because the sun, earth and moon are lined
up, it is also a time when the difference between high and low tide is at its
maximum – a time when tidal streams run at their fastest.

Friday, March 20, 2015

There are three versions of the 19’ 3” Newbridge Navigator:
those with a fin keel or with a lifting keel or with twin keels. The original
Navigator 1, first launched in 1979, was designed by Robert Tucker and
Newbridge Boats. The Mark 111 version came with the option of being rigged with
a Chinese lugsail, referred to as a junk sail. I like her wide side decks and
her uncluttered foredeck which has a draining anchor well. I also like her high coamings for added
security for the crew when in the cockpit which can accommodate up to four
persons. There’s no need to hang over
the transom for getting at her outboard, because it is conveniently mounted in
a well at the aft end of the cockpit.

Being junk rigged, she has a special appeal to me, because I
have owned four junk rigged yachts, and I found them exceptionally good
cruising boats on account of the ease with which a junk sail can be reefed.

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

There are many boats in the locality of Smallgains Marina:
large, small, sail and motor. You name it and it will be there: catamaran,
trimaran, monohull, houseboat, motorboat, day boat, open boat and dinghy.

Without being too selective, I took a few photos of some
them, and here they are. I’m making no further comment, than to say I saw one
or two newer boats, none of which are shown here.

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

While I was at Canvey Island last Friday, I walked along the
footpath at Smallgains Creek that runs beside the Marina. This place is a photographer’s dream, because
the visual images are so rich with texture and colour, and for the marine
photographer it is astonishing. Rarely can there be such a dump-yard of dying
and dead boats*, and in between and around, there are hives of activity with
people working on ‘projects’ – I call them projects, as some are nothing more
than fantasies. Don’t get me wrong, because there are other very sound and
excellent craft at the Marina, the sort that can be admired and valued by their
owners.

I have no doubt that people who keep boats there, and those
who live aboard them, love the atmosphere, with its apparent lack of regulation
and freedom to create ones own lifestyle, though I suspect there are rigid
rules and regulations; for example, where to dispose of trash and where to
assemble in case of emergency, such as if a fire were to occur. I spoke to the
harbourmaster who described his domain as a ‘do-it-yourself’ place, and as an
afterthought he told me that to the best of his knowledge no murders had been
committed there so far. I feel he must
be a very resourceful person who can manage ‘his’ community with tact and
sensitivity and at the same time he must be very good at arranging practical aspects
of running a harbour. Boats have to be launched and retrieved; when being laid-up
ashore, they must be set up safely; piled walkways have to be maintained; mooring
and storage fees have to be collected; toilets must be cleaned and a close
watch must be kept on all happenings– especially as the site is not secure.

*Smallgains Marina Graveyard (Click 7 photos from the right
to see dead and dying boats)

Monday, March 16, 2015

Essex is not short of sailing clubs. I have belonged to
three of them: the Up River Yacht Club, Hullbridge Yacht Club, and the Marconi
Sailing Club.

There are a several advantages in belonging to a club, and perhaps
the most valuable is being able to use a club mooring, which is almost
invariably cheaper than one supplied by a boatyard or a marina. Another
advantage is friendship found with other members, especially those who sail similar
boats to yours. For sailors who are socially minded, a club may be found that
offers facilities for socializing, such as a bar and a restaurant. At certain
times of the year, members may organize get-togethers; for example, a combined
meal and prize-giving, or a dinner and dance evening, or a summer barbecue - even an AGM can be a bit of fun if it is
creatively organised, perhaps with a video presentation of club events. A big
club will require a lot of upkeep; therefore organizers will be looking for
members with time on their hands to do things like painting the premises, keeping
boat parks in good shape, scrubbing the slipway, laying moorings, launching and
retrieving boats etc.

Last Friday I was invited by a member of the Island Sailing
Club to have a look at the Club’s facilities. I was very impressed. The
clubhouse has a large, well-furnished lounge and a decent bar, plus the usual
changing facilities. The boat park is enormous, and there are two large mobile hoists for moving vessels with the aid of a tractor. You could not want
a better slipway, which has a perfect angle of descent, being not too steep,
nor yet too shallow for manoeuvring craft in and out of the water. There are many piled walkways to which yachts can
be moored, facilitating access to them by foot at all states of tide. One
drawback is that it is only possible for most yachts to sail in an out of the
creek from two hours before high water to two hours after high water.

Despite the rather uninviting signs at the entrance to the
club, and the Fort Knox appearance of the gate, I’m sure you will find a very
warm welcome from members, as was my experience, last Friday. I say, thank you
once again BD for being my host. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting you and your
beautiful ‘Scruffie’.

Sunday, March 15, 2015

Now here’s the sort of boat that really appeals to me. The
roots of her design go back to days after the Second World War when, if you
wanted a cheap boat you had to build her yourself. Although not designed until
1990, her designer, Derek Ellard, was close enough to that era to have an
understanding of DIY boat building. He was racing dinghies at Brightlingsea on
the East Coast of England in the late fifties. Disenchanted with cold dunkings
through capsizing, his thoughts turned to cruising dinghies, more in the style
of Swallow and Amazons.

Fortuitously, his training at Art School in the early 1960s
paved the way for a modus operandi in boat design. In his own words he says, ‘This was a time when we studied the
relationships between form and function, and between aesthetics and efficiency.’
It wasn’t until 1990 that things came together for him to come up with building
his dream boat, which he named, ‘Scruffie’. By then he had moved to Australia
where he established Scruffie Marine at Mount Tamborine, on the Gold Coast hinterland. His initial aim
was to produce a cheap, knockabout, lugsail boat, but that did not fully
satisfy him, because he felt she could be improved by making subtle changes,
such as increasing keel depth, profiling the rudder and adding a jib.

His story has progressively advanced, because he has
increased the range of his designs from the recent 11’ 3” Skerrick to the
latest 32’ Selena - at least 15 designs in all, including previous ones such as
the very popular Shimmy 12, the Stornaway Weekender, the Secret 20 and the
Scintilla. Many of them are available in kit form, or they may be purchased as
finished boats. The English builder and supplier of kits for Derek’s boats is
Whisper Boats of Babraham, Cambridge.

I saw a Scruffie for the first time last Friday, and I
became very excited by her simple elegance. She was covered with a tattered
tarpaulin that was being lifted by an elderly gentleman who was intent of
seeing if she had taken any rain in her cockpit. I spoke to him expressing my
delight in his boat, and he gave me a very warm reception, to the extent that
not only did he tell me about the boat, but about his associations with Canvey
Island and the Island Sailing Club that stretch back to the post war years. He
proudly gave me a tour of the Club.

Saturday, March 14, 2015

The Essex Natural History Centre or ‘Green Centre’ is a
relatively new resource at Wat Tyler Country Park, which is not far from
Basildon. It is the home of the Essex Field Club, members of which are keen on the
preservation of natural habitats and animal species dependent upon them.

A great deal of effort has been put into making the Park a
popular venue for families. The ethos behind the landscaping has been to make
it a friendly place for wildlife and at the same time for it to be inviting to the
general public. At first these objectives would appear to be incompatible,
because humans usually have a detrimental affect upon wildlife. We often
destroy natural habitats by the way we live, because we do not consider the
needs of local fauna and vegetation.

Wat Tyler Country Park was formerly a very grim place, because
it was badly treated by humans. Large parts of it were damaged by the presence
of an explosives factory*. Inevitably,
land was poisoned with devastating effects. However, in recent years the site
has been transformed. The old Motor Boat Museum has been replaced with the
aforementioned Natural History Centre, which contains exhibits of creatures from
the past and from the present. There are diagrams and illustrations on display of
creatures currently living in diverse habitats found within the Park. In
addition, there are actual examples of fauna from around the world. These
specimens of all sorts of insects, bugs, beetles, moths etc. are displayed in
cabinets. Ironically, these creatures were killed by those who collected them,
with little thought to the preservation of their species. Beside trays of fossils,
I saw a large one of an ichthyosaurus, although I doubt it was a real fossil - most
likely it was a plaster of Paris replica.

I commend the way in which the parkland has been managed,
except for the mechanical trimming of bushes and trees beside some of the
pathways. Elsewhere, trees have been lopped and bushes pruned sensitively. The
surfaces of footpaths and walkways have been well maintained, and they are
suitable for wheelchair users. ‘Nature trails’ give easy access to creatures
and plant life. I saw a number of birds, including jackdaws and gulls, but very
few smaller birds. From one of the bird hides I saw a duck that I could not
identify. As it waddled over mud at the edge of the creek it spooned its bill
from side to side in the mud searching for morsels to eat.

I didn’t see many children at the Park, but I noticed a
dedicated play area with climbing frames, slides and tunnels for them to
explore, plus a picnic spot with tables and bench seats. Light refreshments were
available at the Green Centre. Parking was free.